Wednesday, October 28, 2015

EXTRA: Six months?

It
would appear that could become the prison term that one-time House Speaker J.
Dennis Hastert may receive when he faces sentencing come Feb. 29.

Hastert,
as expected, showed up at the federal courthouse Wednesday and entered a plea
of “guilty” to one charge of evading bank reporting requirements. Because he
didn’t fight and was regarded as being cooperative, the other charge of lying
to FBI agents was dropped.

BUT
AS ALSO expected, we didn’t get any titillating details about why Hastert
needed to come up with so much cash that he had to go around laws regarding
bank withdrawals and how much one can get at one point of time without having
to report the transaction to the federal government.

We
got the hints early on that Hastert needed the money to pay someone off to keep
their mouth shut about allegations of sexual indiscretions back when Hastert
was a high school teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School.

But
that’s it. Hastert, by being willing to accept a minimal prison term come Leap
Day, may well have made his indiscretions the question to which we’ll never
know the answer.

At
least not until the National Enquirer pays someone to tell a tale that may be
about as accurate as the stories the supermarket tabloids have come up with
about President Barack Obama’s alleged infidelities.

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.